Cascada - Last Christmas

December 18, 2012 Critic Jonni 0 Comments

You could have probably guessed this one was going to pop up, since I am a big fan of Cascada, and they have appeared on my blog a number of times. The band consists of Natalie Horler, Manian (Manuel Reuter) and Yanou (Yann Peifer). They have had various hits worldwide, including a number one here in the UK with "Evacuate The Dancefloor". Recently they haven't quite been getting enough popularity to chart, and their recent singles haven't been doing as well as they should be. They need promotion, and I have just found out they are attempting a shot at Eurovision 2013 for German's entry, this could be the promotion they need.

"Last Christmas" was first released back in 2007 as a cover version of the much loved song "Last Christmas" originally sung by Wham!. The song was released as a b-side to "What Hurts The Most", however it still managed to chart on downloads only at number 111. Recently it has been included in Cascada's most recent album, which is a collection of Christmas songs, called "It's Christmas Time", which nearly charted, but failed to do so in the UK because it was released on a Friday, meaning Cascada had to get enough sales in 2 days to chart in time. It just didn't happen.

This music video is interesting to watch, but I also feel there is a lot going on at the same time that we cannot quite keep up. I have to admit, I am overjoyed by the inclusion of Manian and Yanou, you rarely, if ever, get to see them in Cascada's music videos, yet here they are.

There's both a narrative and a performance side to things. The narrative clearly shows Natalie is troubled by something, clearly giving a guy her heart but he doesn't like her back, but then again it's happened to her, a guy gave her his heart and she is the middle person. I like the ending where he turns up on her doorstep. However this narrative seems confusing.

The performance side of things is weird also. There are two shots, one where the whole of Cascada is in the recording studio, creating the song, which adds something new to this video, but also includes a bit of acting, as at the end Natalie is seen upset to an extent. As for the dancing performance, it just looks out of place, as if Natalie is dancing to a different song, while singing the lyrics to this one.

Overall, a great version of this much loved song. The accompanying music video has good bits and bad bits, I just can't make up my mind if I like it or not, as it seems pretty confusing as a whole. However I think that may be due to the overflow of scenes included in the video. I am unsure on what rating to give the video, and so I'm going in the middle as it's an okay music video.